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We're living in freedom of speech community. However when writing controversial books, are there any topics which are not allowed to write about in First World countries (even for educational purposes)? How do you know when you cross the line?

One example could be Uncle Fester books or WikiLeaks which are the borderlines I think. Are there any other examples?

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closed as off-topic by overactor, Martijn, bmargulies, ArtOfCode♦ Aug 21 '15 at 12:53

  • This question does not appear to relate to open source, within the scope defined in the help center.
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about freedom (of speech) and not Free/Libre/Open content. Or differently put, Free as opposed to proprietary. – overactor Aug 21 '15 at 11:52
  • This question would likely be a better fit over at Law, but might already have been answered there. I'm not a contributing member over there, so I wouldn't know. – overactor Aug 21 '15 at 11:54
  • If our site is going to change to Free/Libre/Open (with broader scope), I don't see how this is off-topic. Which simple asks which topics are not allowed for open access Libre resource (such as e-book), but the same could apply to source code. – kenorb Aug 21 '15 at 11:57
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    This appears to be a question about criminal law; can you get busted for publishing a bomb-building manual. FLO(ss) seems wildly beside the point. – bmargulies Aug 21 '15 at 12:13
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    I think that questions about the interaction of FLO with other things, including laws, are on-topic, inasmuch as they can be answered by a non-lawyer – david.libremone Aug 21 '15 at 12:52
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FLO licenses take a legal, copyright-restricted-by-default work, and give you permission to copy, modify and/or distribute that work. They would not take precedence over criminal law in your country, including laws that criminalise or restrict publication and distribution of certain materials.

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    An interesting side-effect could be that they give someone else the rights to publish your book elsewhere. This might just fulfill the original goal of getting the book published. – Michael Schumacher Aug 22 '15 at 9:36

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